Physicians Preferred Products was established in 2007 as a medical-only dispensary. We stayed medical-only to serve the Colorado patient community until January 2013, when we opened our Northglenn store for recreational sales. In 2015, we changed our name to Doc’s Apothecary. Our Globeville location in Denver is still medical-only with plans for recreational sales in 2019.

What’s the story behind the name of your dispensary?

The majority owner of Doc’s Apothecary is a licensed physician. Doc had a patient on something like 700mg Oxytocin one day after an accident and 23 surgeries. Doc decided to try something new and issued a cannabis oil prescription. Doc watched as this patient kicked the prescription addiction and lived pain-free, opioid-free, using cannabis. After witnessing how effective cannabis can be, Doc was sold on the medicinal benefits that cannabis has to offer and opened Physicians Preferred Products.

What does your dispensary offer customers that they can’t find anywhere else?

In a pre-packaged world, Doc’s Apothecary allows you to pick through different packaged weights, see the cannabis within the bag, open and smell the cannabis, and purchase the bag you have just smelled from. Too often customers look at a display and are then saddled with whatever resides within the opaque packed container that ends up in their bag. Doc’s Apothecary offers a hands-on bud-buying experience.

How has the cannabis industry changed since you have been in the business? Where would you like to see it go?

Medical has moved from an industry-wide priority to taking a backseat to the recreational world. Price of cannabis has decreased overall, which has led to less focus on well-grown flower. Doc’s would like to continue to provide affordable, quality flower for the medical community (thankfully regulations are changing soon to allow for that to occur) as well as push the quality of recreational cannabis to a higher level.

What are the biggest challenges you face in this industry as a dispensary? . . . Biggest joys? Biggest challenges: Cannabis being federally illegal creates complications in taxes, which as a “mom-and pop” store, hinder us in certain ways that legality in the federal governments’ eyes wouldn’t. Biggest Joys: Serving our community, providing alternative medication options for patients and being a part of the cannabis revolution.

What is the one thing you want patients/customers to know about your dispensary?

We have a plethora of concentrates on our recreational side and we have excellent deals for both recreational and medical customers on a variety of platforms including Weedmaps, CannaSaver, Leafly, Leafbuyer and within CULTURE Magazine as well!

If someone wanted to open a dispensary and get their feet wet in the industry, what advice or counsel would you give them?

The Colorado dispensary market is saturated and big box stores have a good hold of the market share, getting involved in other niche areas of the industry would likely be the most lucrative.

What do you hope to accomplish in the cannabis industry?

We want to keep truly quality cannabis available to Colorado residents and medical patients, along with keeping a bit of the Colorado cannabis market in the small business sphere.